Rugby League Super League 2010

EdWeatherall said:
Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics eh?
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Nope, just a sure sign of our development under Smith. We always used to put our cue on the rack when we had games won and let in a few late, sloppy tries. Not any more. We are now a full 80 minute team now IMO.

We always had the ability in the 3/4's to score tries, it was our inability to prevent shipping points that kept costing us. This has been addressed now.

Wigan and the Giants get lauded for their defence(rightfully so) but ours is better thus far and we haven't bent the rules at the ruck to breaking point like those two teams :angel:
 
I know it's not Super League, but was really impressed by Huddersfield today in the Challenge Cup

And the draw for the next round is in

Barrow v Hunslet
Crusaders v Catalans
Bradford v Leigh
Halifax v Batley
Harlequins v St Helens
Huddersfield v Warrington
Leeds v Blackpool
Widnes/Lezignan v Wigan

No doubt which is the tie of the round, Huddersfield vs Warrington, two very good sides going head to head
 
jgraham said:
Not so much Super league but......

BBC Sport - Rugby League - Melbourne Storm stripped of two NRL titles

That's one hell of a punishment!
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Aye, a deserved one though. Keeping the likes of Slater, Smith, Inglis, Cronk and co through dual contracts is unsporting and has clearly given them an unfair advantage.

I'd imagine they'll have to accept bids for some of their best players now that it's been proven that they are not under the cap.

To think that players like King, Folau, Bell, Croker, Dallas Johnson etc are no longer there and they are still over the cap is mind boggling. Surely someone should have spotted dodgy accounts and payments when they were paying a king's ransom to all these players along with their current squad?
 
WireRed said:
Aye, a deserved one though. Keeping the likes of Slater, Smith, Inglis, Cronk and co through dual contracts is unsporting and has clearly given them an unfair advantage.

I'd imagine they'll have to accept bids for some of their best players now that it's been proven that they are not under the cap.

To think that players like King, Folau, Bell, Croker, Dallas Johnson etc are no longer there and they are still over the cap is mind boggling. Surely someone should have spotted dodgy accounts and payments when they were paying a king's ransom to all these players along with their current squad?
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I know - somebody should surely have spotted it a mile off, it's been goin on for 5 years they say.

It could realistically be the end of the club, a £1m fine and nothing to play for this season? surely hard to cope with unless as you say some of the bigger names are allowed to leave - Gidley is leaving us at the end of the year, Inglis would be a handy replacement!!
 
jgraham said:
I know - somebody should surely have spotted it a mile off, it's been goin on for 5 years they say.

It could realistically be the end of the club, a £1m fine and nothing to play for this season? surely hard to cope with unless as you say some of the bigger names are allowed to leave - Gidley is leaving us at the end of the year, Inglis would be a handy replacement!!
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Aye, it's a potentially fatal blow to the club. Victoria is not a RL hotbed like the rest of Aus so they could struggle more than anyone to overcome this.

Aye, I'm sure we at Wire could do with replacing Mathers with Slater. I'm sure we could squeeze Cam Smith and Brett White into our squad aswell :drool::devil:

Aus RU will prbably be the big beneficiaries of this scandal though :mad:
 
WireRed said:
Aye, it's a potentially fatal blow to the club. Victoria is not a RL hotbed like the rest of Aus so they could struggle more than anyone to overcome this.

Aye, I'm sure we at Wire could do with replacing Mathers with Slater. I'm sure we could squeeze Cam Smith and Brett White into our squad aswell :drool::devil:

Aus RU will prbably be the big beneficiaries of this scandal though :mad:
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Thats the sad thing about this - they'll be rubbing their hands at the prospect of snapping up some of their star men.

I read Folau at Brisbane is also a target and could possible make the switch at the end of this eason
 
Brett Hodgson leaving Giants

BBC Sport - Rugby League - Brett Hodgson to leave Huddersfield at end of season

Expected to sign with Warrington, I don't know how Warrington seem to afford all their players within the salary cap, I'm not saying their cheating, but the same way people had suspicions about Melbourne Storm, I do wonder about how Warrington are able to keep being linked to what you would expect to be expensive signings
 
EdWeatherall said:
Brett Hodgson leaving Giants

BBC Sport - Rugby League - Brett Hodgson to leave Huddersfield at end of season

Expected to sign with Warrington, I don't know how Warrington seem to afford all their players within the salary cap, I'm not saying their cheating, but the same way people had suspicions about Melbourne Storm, I do wonder about how Warrington are able to keep being linked to what you would expect to be expensive signings
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We've certainly got a star-studded squad but I think it's all above board.

Brett would take Mathers place in our pay structure. Briers and Wood are on the long-term servants list, Big Dave is probably not on the highest salary considering his injury history, Bridge, Riley, Harrison, Cooper and co are players on lower wages, we also vacated a load of cap space with the sale of Gleese last year so...

Our highest earners are King, Monas, Myler, Moz, Gaz, and maybe Louis. After that, I'd expect most of the squad to be in the lower tier of our pay structure.

We have no past history of fiddling the salary cap unlike Wigan and St Helens, so they can get off their high horse straight away.

If we are up to no good, then I'll be ashamed but like I said, we've assembled a quality squad through good youth development and a willingness to pay the going rate for quality players. Nothing wrong with that.
 
Great win for Wire against Salford. Ten tries (actually, should that be trys?). Warrington do have a deep and powerful squad these days.
 
It hurt to watch the salford game, knowing my girlfriend was there :lol:

Hopefully Wigan can win tomorrow against the Giants and regain top spot :)
 
Anyone see the late and high challenge by O'Loughlin on Luke Robinson? Following on, Nathan Brown has made a threat that if the officials won't protect his smaller players, they have plenty of bigger guys in the team that will do the job for them!
 
Northstand said:
Anyone see the late and high challenge by O'Loughlin on Luke Robinson? Following on, Nathan Brown has made a threat that if the officials won't protect his smaller players, they have plenty of bigger guys in the team that will do the job for them!
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It was a shocker. Has to be banned surely. Oh wait...I just remembered that he plays for Wigan :rolleyes:
 
Didn't a couple of Warrington players get away with something early in the season??

I've not seen this incident, so can't say whether it was deserved, just remember a couple of Warrington players being cited
 
jgraham said:
The whole discipline thing needs a complete overhall if you ask me - far too much inconsistency.
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Yeh

And I don't like the fact the refs just cop out and stick players on report rather than make a decision there and then, lets say O'Loughlin should've seen yellow or more, that would hardly help Huddersfield having banned for other matches
 
EdWeatherall said:
Yeh

And I don't like the fact the refs just cop out and stick players on report rather than make a decision there and then, lets say O'Loughlin should've seen yellow or more, that would hardly help Huddersfield having banned for other matches
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this is a big part that annoys me - the team who suffers initially from the foul get no benefit from the offender being banned for the following game. The ref should have more bottle and use the red and yellow card more freely instead of using the on report as a get out clause.
 
EdWeatherall said:
Didn't a couple of Warrington players get away with something early in the season??

I've not seen this incident, so can't say whether it was deserved, just remember a couple of Warrington players being cited
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Yeah, Morley and Carvell were cited. Personally I thought the O'Loughlin challenge was more calculated but nonetheless you have a point.
 
Yeah, fantastic by Wire today, what a job Smith has done for the club. As well as the quality of the play, there's been a huge improvement in the discipline of the side too.
 
It was some good stuff, but Huddersfield were diabolical, the number of times they gave it away on the first tackle and invited the pressure.

And then most unacceptably, they gave up
 
EdWeatherall said:
It was some good stuff, but Huddersfield were diabolical, the number of times they gave it away on the first tackle and invited the pressure.

And then most unacceptably, they gave up
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I agree they gave up after the Brett Hodgson cock-up try. But I think the errors they made were nearly all in situations where our line-speed and tackle technique was the cause of those errors. It's a part of our game that has improved beyond recognition under Tony Smith but we don't seem to get the credit we deserve for it, I mean, we are 2 points off having the best defensive record in SL(this has been achieved without bending ruck rules to breaking point like Hudds and Wigan either :angel:).
 
I don't know how much of it is your defence being good or how much of it is your attack, if you said that was the best in the league, I'd probably have to agree

And obviously, that gets you in great positions to force repeat sets and just not have to defend as much

Might have a look if the numbers back me up in the sense that your team are making a lot less tackles
 
EdWeatherall said:
I don't know how much of it is your defence being good or how much of it is your attack, if you said that was the best in the league, I'd probably have to agree

And obviously, that gets you in great positions to force repeat sets and just not have to defend as much

Might have a look if the numbers back me up in the sense that your team are making a lot less tackles
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Yeah, we've always had a superb attack and played attractive rugby, even harking back to the Cullen era but we always had a sieve-like defence both on our try line and in our line-speed. We would also relax when we had games won and let team pull 10-16 points back.

Since Smith came in, he's changed our mentality and made defending for our lives a priority rather than an afterthought as it was under Cullen and Lowes. That's why I think we are where we are in the table and why we are capable of nilling teams which was unheard of for us before Tony and his magic wand arrived.
 
Bradford away next round of the Challenge Cup - poor reward for Warrington stuffing Huddersfield away.

Leeds v Wigan is another great tie. Saints given a virtual bye with a home game against Barrow.
 
Northstand said:
Bradford away next round of the Challenge Cup - poor reward for Warrington stuffing Huddersfield away.

Leeds v Wigan is another great tie. Saints given a virtual bye with a home game against Barrow.
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It's a fecking joke. It's common law in football that Chelsea get a passport to the semis in the FA Cup with dross at home draws, the same applies to Saints in the CC :rolleyes:

As for our draw, tough but if both teams bring their A game there is only one winner...Wire. Just hope we do just that or we could get a bloodied nose :nervous:
 
WireRed said:
It's a fecking joke. It's common law in football that Chelsea get a passport to the semis in the FA Cup with dross at home draws, the same applies to Saints in the CC :rolleyes:

As for our draw, tough but if both teams bring their A game there is only one winner...Wire. Just hope we do just that or we could get a bloodied nose :nervous:
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2006 we beat Bradford and Catalans on the way to the semi
2007 we beat Warrington at home on the way to the semi
2008 we beat Warrington at home on the way to the semi
2009 we beat Leeds away on the way to the semi

Doesn't really help your argument seeing as we've drawn you in 2 of the previous 4 seasons and knocked you out of it.
 
jgraham said:
2006 we beat Bradford and Catalans on the way to the semi
2007 we beat Warrington at home on the way to the semi
2008 we beat Warrington at home on the way to the semi
2009 we beat Leeds away on the way to the semi

Doesn't really help your argument seeing as we've drawn you in 2 of the previous 4 seasons and knocked you out of it.
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I remember you drawing the likes of Catalans(when they were shite), Toulouse, Dewsbury and the like over the years.

Also, apart from Leeds last year and Quins this year, I can barely remember you playing away in the CC over the last few years.
 
I could care less about who Saints draw and where they have to play. Someone had to play Barrow and odds were that it would be a Super League team.

I'm too busy concentrating on just how good Wire were at the weekend, I have never seen a performance quite like that one, unbelievably good. And the atmosphere in the ground was immense too, well in the away end at least, Hudds support is pretty shocking.

Huddersfield will be back mind, and I expect a tough match against Bradford in a few weeks time. We've had the better of them under Smith so far, hopefully that will continue.
 
WireRed said:
I remember you drawing the likes of Catalans(when they were shite), Toulouse, Dewsbury and the like over the years.

Also, apart from Leeds last year and Quins this year, I can barely remember you playing away in the CC over the last few years.
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I can't argue against the fact that the large majority of our Challenge cup games have been home ties, but that's just 50/50 so no real issue.

Over the past 5 seasons only in 2007 did we face more than one lower league team, every other year we've faced two super league teams and one lower league team. To imply the draw is rigged is a bit much.
 
jgraham said:
I can't argue against the fact that the large majority of our Challenge cup games have been home ties, but that's just 50/50 so no real issue.

Over the past 5 seasons only in 2007 did we face more than one lower league team, every other year we've faced two super league teams and one lower league team. To imply the draw is rigged is a bit much.
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Not rigged, I don't believe in all that nonsense. It's just one of those things that seems to happen an awful lot.

Wire never seem to get a SL team at home either but it's just luck or lack of in our case :(
 
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